This month I'm spotlighting Operation Smile, an organization dedicated to helping children with cleft lips and/or cleft palates smile. A plastic surgeon and his wife founded Operation Smile when they traveled to the Philippines and saw hundreds of kids with untreated deformities. A cleft palate or lip is when the tissues of the mouth or lip do not form properly during fetal development. In the United States, clefts occur in 1 in 700 to 1,000 births, making it the one of the most common major birth defects. Clefts occur more often in children of Asian, Latino, or Native American descent. The good news is that both cleft lip and cleft palate are treatable birth defects. Most kids who are born with these conditions can have reconstructive surgery within the first 12 to 18 months of life to correct the defect and significantly improve facial appearance. The bad news is, in many countries, funds and medical professionals are not as widely available as they are in North America, so too many children do not have the option of surgery. A child with a cleft lip or palate tends to be more susceptible to colds, hearing loss, and speech defects. Dental problems - such as missing, extra, malformed, or displaced teeth, and cavities - also are common in children born with cleft palate. Speech, eating, drinking and social interaction are also challenging for those afflicted with a cleft lip or palate.As always, the easiest way to help Operation Smile is to donate funds. There are other ways, however. If you want to volunteer time, there are Mission trips going to different countries every month, and extra hands are always appreciated. If you are a medical professional, your skills are even more valuable.
I encourage you to check out some of the stories surrounding this wonderful charity. The impact Operation Smile is having on these children is larger than life.
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